


Children of the Stars

by KAten (Killerwit68)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, CORP Agents, Chromodecs, F/F, Feedback Pls!, Q'sirrahna, Soul Bond, Soul mate, Superheroes, US CORP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 10:25:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killerwit68/pseuds/KAten
Summary: ~First Chapter Only~After a government genetic experiment created the Chromodecs from a dead alien found in the dessert in 1952, the planet unknowingly came under guardianship of the Tau Ceti. To deal with a hybrid humans with unheard of powers, the CORP was created. The Chromodec Office of Restraint and Protection, a special government police agency formed to keep track of the Chromodecs. Furthermore, by Tau Ceti decree, no one was allowed to further advance the humans beyond their natural capabilities, under threat of death. The humans themselves remained blissfully unaware that they were being infiltrated and monitored so intently.The Tau tried to keep the planet clear of interstellar travelers, however, refugees still found their way to the surface on occasion. This particular tale involves two young babies who are sent down to Earth to escape being used as pawns in an interplanetary war. Destined to be Q’sirrahna, or soul mates as the humans called it, the babes would grow to be more powerful than any other beings on the planet. Forced to hide from the CORP when it's realized their powers could level entire cities, will they choose to save a world that fears them, when no other heroes can?





	Children of the Stars

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/poetblue/45408269991/in/dateposted-public/)

[NOT THE OFFICIAL COVER]

 

Hi everyone! As promised I'm putting this up for 2 weeks so I can get feedback from the readers. You can either leave notes in the comments or just email me via AO3 or to my personal email found in my profile. I'm looking for overall impression, grammar, spelling, continuity, etc. 

 

**Remember: Download now if you want to read it. It will only be available until 10/28/2018.**

And now for the main event...

 

**Children of the Stars**

 

**Prologue:**

 

 

_IN EVERY WORLD across the known universe, there are multitudes of stories told to entertain the masses. Each place, every pinprick of life scattered throughout the stars, has its own history and language of memory. Some stories are true, while others are so fabricated they border on comical. But they are all cherished equally because love and humor are common languages in any self-aware society. There are tales that extol the virtues of romance and drama while others put words to the actions and adventures of heroes long forgotten. But once in a lifetime, worlds and stories come together and there is no definable genre to the telling. There is no point at which you could pull that tale apart to its individual components. The story simply is as it has always has been. And the heroes merely wait for the loving gaze of the reader. This is one of those tales._

 

THERE IS A galaxy that exists, spiral in shape and teeming with a lifetime of suns and satellites. Masses of rock, great and small, some of them miracles of organic and crystalline potential. In one arm of a lonely spiral, there lies a star. Let’s call it Sol. And around that star orbits a handful of planets, each with their own peculiar makeup and orbit. While a total of five orbiting planets and moons hold the capability to sustain essence and esprit, only one swirling ball of green and blue holds the power of organic life.

Carbon-based and requiring oxygen to thrive, reproductive creatures have been growing on the surface of Terra for billions of years. But it has only been in the last 200,000 years that humanoids evolved. Ignorant and angry, creative and curious, the peoples of Terra spewed toxins into their own environment. The damage peaking around the same point in time they began to fling radio signals and radiation alike into the far depths of space.

They are primitive, jokes to some and studied by others. Incapable of sustained space travel, the Terrans are left marooned on their planet to wallow amidst the filth of their own creation. But beauty can still be found. With each decade of advancement, the humanoids work on restoring the natural state of their world. And to protect the delicately burgeoning people of Terra from advanced peoples that would do them harm, one race stepped in to watch. The Tau Ceti were the oldest known beings, more advanced than all others and therefore they were the most powerful. If they said a star or one of its planets was off limits, the other worlds listened. And in the Terran year of 1952, the Tau Ceti declared the planet known locally as “Earth” to be such.

Those extra-terrestrials already on the surface that were living in peace, unknown by the local humans (as the Earthlings called themselves) were allowed to stay. But every single one had to pledge on penalty of death that they would not share advanced technology with the humans of Terra. They had to abide by the Sol-Ceti Pact to remain hidden to the people of the planet, and to not interfere in the development of technology, society, or biology. Even the humans themselves were not exempt from the ruling by the Tau Ceti.

The Sol-Ceti Pact was essential, and more important than the people of Terra would ever know. It kept them pure and it kept them ignorant of just how small and inconsequential they were in the known universe. But most importantly, it kept them safe. And like many important decisions, treatises, and discoveries around billions of worlds, there was a very good reason for the Sol-Ceti Pact’s existence.

 

 

Chapter One

 

_LET’S SET THE scene. The location is hot, a desert in the middle of nowhere, or maybe it’s nowhere in the middle of a desert. The Mohave spans across four of the United States, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. An inhospitable place, dry and cold at night, hot and deadly during the day. It was a place on Earth you went to for one of two reasons. You either wanted to die, or you needed to hide. And for a government facility with more secrets than employees, the reason was most certainly the second. The drab facility near the Groom Lake basin in Nevada was high security base and if the desert itself didn’t keep out the casual or not so casual observer, the tall electrified fence was sure to do the trick._

_More advanced than ever before after the discovery of the ship in Area 51, the scientists on the base were having a banner year. The ship itself had been gutted and chopped into parts, like a great beast killed in primitive times. Each part going to a different family to sustain them through the hardships of life. Only instead of yielding meat, the ship provided so much more. The Aero department got the ship hull, the Engine department was gifted with the propulsion system, and the Tech group received navigation and electronics. But there was one more department listed only as the Organics group. You see, the ship wasn’t empty when it crashed. No, besides technology, wonder, and a great deal of fear, it also brought an alien down to the planet’s surface. It was the extra-terrestrial, a previously sentient organic body, that was given to the black suits._

_The crash itself concerned the Tau Ceti immensely. They knew what few others did, that the alien was a fugitive that had come to Earth for two reasons. First and foremost, he wanted to escape pursuers from his home planet. They were intent on sentencing him to life on a prison island for his horrific crimes. Second, the fleeing alien knew about the primitive aspect of Earth’s natives and their technology. He figured that if he couldn’t oust the Sovereign Queen of his own world, he would find a new one where his channels of power would make him a god among the people. Kendo Binn Havington was meant to rule, one way or another. A fact passed down from one generation to the next._

_It was shortly after the crash and discovery by the humans that the progenitor race of Tau Ceti formed the non-interference pact. They saw potential for disaster when the ship was split up for research and they wanted to mitigate the damage, as well as warn others who thought Terra would be an easy conquest. The Tau Ceti liked the scrappy planet much the way it was and considered the Earth and its people a pet project of sorts._

_The humans of said “scrappy planet” had other ideas about how innocent they should remain. And it was a guarantee that the Tau Ceti never informed them of any non-advancement pact. The various departments investigating each part of the ship typically worked quite well together. However, the organics lab with its black-suited agents and scientists was a bit out there for most of the scientists and division members to really feel comfortable. The other department’s personnel thought they were “spooky” and refused to even enter that wing of the facility. As for the reason for black suit, well they served a purpose too. Black didn’t show alien blood nearly as much as traditional medical scrubs. So everyone in the Spook division wore black no matter the type of clothing preferred, from the team of scientists to the director of that wing. And that is where we find one of the very first antagonists in this tale._

 

 

BRIAN DAGGETT nodded at the guard and pushed through the high security doors of the research facility. Director Keene raked him over the coals for showing a lack of results in their current analysis. But Dr. Daggett had ideas, he had plans. And with the threat of unemployment hanging over his head, and Christmas right around the corner, he was understandably stressed. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about right now, he just found out the day before that his wife was pregnant with his second kid. The first one wasn’t even speaking yet at three years old, certainly no prize. Never mind the fact that his eldest child was a girl.

Worst of all, Truman had announced that he wasn’t seeking reelection. So what if he was prickly and had low approval ratings. Anyone that had the balls to drop a five ton bomb on their enemy was “jake” with Brian. As for his oldest kid, the best he could hope for there was to marry her off to some enterprising young man with more ambition than common sense. “From my lips to God’s ears.” He muttered to himself as he unlocked his office.

Brian threw himself into his chair and ran a hand through thinning hair. If he couldn’t get results going the official and legal route then maybe it was time to try another way. His right index finger jabbed and spun around the rotary dial of the phone, numbers he knew by heart. Ringing sounded through the line, then a click as it was picked up.

“Yeah.”

The good doctor didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Stegman, its Dr. Black.” Clearly a codename, as it wasn’t his real one. “We are a go for Operation Spook.”

The plan was simple really. Alien DNA was discovered to have ten extra sets of chromosomes, beyond the twenty-three pairs a standard human possessed. Brian Daggett was a brilliant man, despite displaying a distinctive lack of moral fortitude for most of his forty years on the planet. He was the one that discovered a way of splicing human and alien DNA together, with the some of the “borrowed” technology his man had taken from the Tech wing. And with the best geneticists in the world under Brian’s purview, he had one hundred fertilized hybrid eggs waiting for their fully human incubators. Now all he needed were the “volunteers”.

 

 ***

“I’M SORRY, DR. Daggett, but after two years and nearly half a million dollars in resources, you’ve yielded no quantifiable results from your Chromodec project. You’ve wasted both time and money chasing a mythical ‘super-man’. This isn’t a comic strip, Doctor.” He paused, his face serious as Brian had ever seen it in the three months that he had known the new Director.

Brian swallowed nervously. “No, Sir. It’s not.” He’d personally witnessed Director Aimes make a man piss his pants, but Brian wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of showing fear. No sir he wouldn’t.

The new director of the facility shuffled a few papers in front of him on the desk. He was quite disturbed by what he found when he began reviewing the project files of each research wing. Most could be taken care of easily enough, but the last one was a bit more problematic. He picked up the conversation where he left off. “And as a result of this human genome folly, I’m afraid there are very tangible consequences to that waste. This department is scheduled to shut down within two weeks and all personnel will be transferred to fill existing vacancies at other bases around the country. I was able to get placement for your team, with the usual non-disclosure regs in effect. You, however…” He sighed for both dramatic effect, and to convey displeasure, exactly as he’d been taught before being assigned this particular mission. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go. You have one hour to pack your personal belongings then a guard will come by to escort you to the gate. This is to be termination with prejudice due to your poor decisions and reprehensible behavior.” He was well aware of how Daggett would take the news. The Watchers were counting on a specific response from the doctor.

Daggett tried to plead his case. “But sir, perhaps we just need to run more tests on the children—“

Director Aimes raised his voice in anger. “There have been enough tests run, Doctor! I cannot believe you have the temerity to sit in front of me and plead your case given the nature of what you and your team have done. You abducted women from all over the country and implanted alien-human hybrid eggs into them, then returned the women to their families in disgrace!” He pounded on his desk, seeming as if anger had gotten the better of him.

“You even had a team of hypnotists on the payroll to implant false memories of some sort of alien abduction, knowing that not one person would believe them. Not only did their friends and family think those poor girls were liars, but every one of them became an unwed mother. You ruined their chances of ever finding good marriage potential, forever shamed as harlots. And on top of everything else, you wasted thousands of dollars on planted personnel with the sole responsibility of monitoring those women and the children they birthed. No, Mr. Daggett, we are lucky that there were no dire consequences from your actions. As it is, I personally hope you burn in hell for what you’ve put those young women through.”

Brian’s face paled and he began to sweat. How had it all gone so wrong for him? Well here is a little secret. It went wrong when he tried to use alien DNA and technology to alter the biology of humans, to _advance_ it. He personally broke the pact that was formed right after Kendo Binn Havington crashed to the surface. What Dr. Brian Daggett didn’t know was that Director Aimes himself was not who he seemed. Per the Sol-Ceti pact, there were Watchers placed in every major government of the world. How else could you guarantee that the terms of the agreement were not being broken? Director Aimes had come into the game late, as humans liked to say, but he was going to get the job done. Even if that job was the worst kind of cleanup. He leveled a cold look at the man sitting on the wrong side of his desk. “That will be all, Doctor.”

There was nothing left to say, nothing left that Brian Daggett could do to plead his case or salvage his career. Getting fired _with prejudice_ by the government was bad enough. But all the research he’d been doing for the past decade was covert and nothing he could list on a resume. Without a doubt he knew that Aimes would have him blacklisted in the science community. No, he was ruined. On top of that, his was wife was pregnant with their third child. She insisted on trying again the year before, knowing how disappointed Brian had been about not having a son. At the time it made sense to suggest using his connections at work to guarantee a son, with the Organics lab’s “newfangled fertilization” technique. She bought his idea, hook, line, and sinker. And it was fortunate he had one modified egg left. Now the sex of the child mattered not, nor did the potential power of it, because it would grow up fatherless.

Exactly forty-five minutes after exiting the director’s office, a gunshot echoed through the corridors of the Organic wing of the facility. Armed guards found the body of Dr. Brian Daggett slumped over on his desk, pieces of skull and nearly-macerated brain matter painted the wall behind him. It was one less loose end to wrap up. Strangely enough, the cleanup team was already on standby to take care of his office.

 

 ***

_DECADES IN THE future, and lightyears away, there was trouble of another kind. Terra wasn’t the only planet full of people grasping greedily at the tendrils of power. Even rulers felt fear when fanatics stirred the people from the safety of reason. But there were other powers in the universe that even escaped fugitives or evil generals could not fathom. Sometimes only the hands of babes can grasp something so intangible and pure. For true power comes from the heart and cleaves to the mind. It does not come from the mind and cleave to the heart._

 

 

THE LIGHT WAS weak where it shone through the portal, and the stars glimmered brightly in the darkness beyond.  Denii and Selphan Del Rey gazed upon the sleeping infants with equal parts worry and affection. Both babes had the medium hued skin of their races, but where one was of fair hair and eyes, the other had eyes and hair of darkness. Less than a month old and their tiny hands grasped together with desperate intent. A sigh escaped Denii’s lips. Her mate gently brushed her nearly black hair behind an ear and moved closer. “What troubles you, sirra?”

Denii looked to her binary queen and gave a smile that did not reach her eyes. “I mourn for them. Neither will grow up knowing their worlds as we did.”

Anger pulled Selphan’s lips into a frown. “Their worlds are nearly dead, and of their own doing! Perhaps they are not worth knowing.”

The shorter queen placed a calming hand over Selphan’s. “Without a past, we have no anchor for the future. You know this, ‘Phan. Despite the pain the war between our two planets has caused, I regret having to leave. My heart breaks that we could not save them.”

Selphan wrapped an arm around her queen and pulled her close. “There was nothing we could do, he refused to go. Even though the planets of Reyna and Tora were sworn enemies, there is at least some hope we can take from the fact that we had finally forged an alliance with Calden and Inir Baen-Tor. It is just a shame that factions of our respective planetary governments sought to keep the conflict going until the bitter end.”

“We should have saved them.”

The taller woman gently stroked the white blonde hair of Zendara Inyri Baen-Tor. “We saved their daughter.”

“And ours.” Denii smiled and ran gentle fingers through the dark hair of the other babe, Amari Losira Del Rey. She was the royal heir of the planet Reyna and counterpart to the baby at her side, heir to the planet Tora.  After a few minutes of silence Denii moved her hand down to stroke the soft skin where the babies’ fists clung to one another. “They’ve already bonded. I did not expect it so soon.”

It was Selphan’s turn to sigh then. “It was written in the filtered rose light of Q’orre that the babes of our two houses would be destined for each other. They are Q’sirrahna. Had we not saved the child of Tora, our own daughter would have been bereft, empty of heart and soul her entire life. She would have languished. They are stronger together, and nothing short of death can keep them from finding one another.”

“Perhaps together they could have saved our worlds.”

Selphan shook her head. “No. Nothing could have saved our worlds. The light of our sun Q’orre shone down upon a war that was older than our two houses. The war was too old and too profitable to end without a clear victor. No peace or alliance could have been forged without a mutiny of the ruling elites, as we clearly bore witness to. They made their money on the deaths of the common people. I mourn for them all. I weep each night for the people of our house and home.”

The smaller woman nodded sadly, with eyes wet by unshed tears. “You know I weep as well. That is why we must do our best to keep the last children of Q’orre safe. I like that we’ve started a video log for them. It’s only right that they know the histories of our worlds.”

Alarms suddenly rang throughout the ship, startling the women and infants alike. Even as the queens’ hearts raced with anxiety, the babies filled their lungs and squalled with fear and discomfort at the loud repeating noise. “We need to secure them then check ship status and coms!” As a precaution, they moved the babes to emergency pods and sealed them away into silence before making haste to the pilot station. The infants calmed while the women became more distraught.

Sitting in the primary pilot seat, Denii punched in new coordinates and the forward screen blurred in space, the tell-tale sign of a faster than light jump. She turned to her mate. “I have only bought us time. While our ship is faster, they have the newest tracking technology and will follow our ion trail wherever we go. Perhaps we have not saved anyone on this journey.”

Selphan unclasped from her own seat and stood. “No! I refuse to believe that. I’m going to check the database to see if there is a safe haven somewhere in this galaxy. I know there are primitive planets, maybe we can find one to hide the four of us.”

After a tight-lipped stare, Denii nodded. “I’ll stay here and monitor the alerts. Let me know what you find.”

The taller woman leaned down and kissed Denii tenderly on the lips. “I will.”

 

 ***

THREE DAYS PASSED by with two more near misses of their pursuers. Each time the other ship caught up it was closer than the last, and the queens of Reyna knew they were running out of time. Each day they spent a good many hours holding the infants in their arms, telling them stories of the houses of Reyna and Tora. They fed and comforted the babies of dark and light, and took turns cradling and cuddling with each. But the little ones never stopped trying to reach for each other. As predicted, their soul bond was fully-formed, if not quite sealed, at an unheard of age.

On the fourth day, mid-ship time, Selphan finally found a promising biome. She hit the intraship com and called for her mate. “Denii, I’ve found something!”

The other queen’s voice sounded over the com speaker in return. “Be right there.”

It took less than two minutes to traverse the corridors between the pilot station and the research room. In it, Selphan had a planet on the view screen. A lush water world, with brown and green masses covered by swirling white clouds. The taller woman began speaking as soon as her mate arrived. “The atmosphere looks promising. Their sun is a yellow dwarf, quite a bit different than our own Q’orre. According to their classifications, Q’orre would be considered an ultracool dwarf. That means their light will be significantly brighter than ours, and with a yellow-white focus, rather than the rose tint we are used to. The temperatures are near enough to our home worlds to guarantee that alone should hold no adverse effects for our races, as is gravity.”

“What is this?” Denii pointed at a short list of elements and percentages.

“That is their atmospheric makeup. Nitrogen of 78.08 percent, oxygen of 20.95 percent, Argon of .93 percent, and a variety of other elements make up the remaining .0001 percent. Traces of neon, helium, and krypton are negligible and will not affect our biology.”

Denii frowned. “Argon? What is that, I don’t recognize it? While only a small amount, it is not an element we have been exposed to. We do not know the effects such an element will have on our alien systems. It could mean slow poisoning—“

“Or nothing at all. This argon is an unfamiliar element to our computer system. I only got the name and molecular structure off the planetary information network. But that doesn’t make it bad for us and we don’t have time to run experiments, we need a place now. We need a planet and society we can hide and assimilate into, where we won’t be found by the soldiers of Tal Boraan.”

Fury washed over the normally affable Denii Del Rey. “He is a disease upon the society of both planets! Nothing but a mercenary and thief of our world, promoting destruction and misery in the name of a pointless war! We held the treaty in our hands when his ships attacked Tora! And for the betrayal of our own general, the king and queen of our sworn enemy entrusted us with their only child. I am at a loss as to how I should process this. Why didn’t they come?”

In an instant, the taller woman was out of the console chair and by Denii’s side. She took both hands into her own and held them clasped to her heart. “I don’t know, sirra. Perhaps they felt a responsibility to their people. We may never know their motivations, we only know they wanted to keep their child safe. And I worry too. You know I would not even consider such an unknown now if we were not out of time.”

“Do we have any contacts there? Is the planet in a protected system?”

Selphan nodded. “Yes on both counts. I have already sent coded transmissions into the solar system and received a response from two pairs of Reynan allied races that are embedded on the surface. They are working as Watchers but should still be able to help us. The planet is called Earth by its inhabitants. Or more formally known as Terra. The star is Sol. They have beings of power there but they are monitored closely by Watchers. Because the Terrans are not capable of interstellar travel yet, they are under surveillance and protection from the Tau Ceti. As a whole, the Tau try to prevent people from landing on the planet, but if explorers do make their way to the surface they are on their own. As you already know, the Tau Ceti are infamous for their dedication to non-interference. At least when it suits them.”

Denii’s eyes widened. “Tau Ceti? Are the inhabitants of similar physiology then?” She was curious as to why the humanoid grays would take such an interest in a primitive planet. While they were a curious race, they usually kept to their own.

“No. In physical appearance the people of Terra are a very near match to the races of Q’orre. As you know, even though we consider the races of Reyna and Tora to be different, we are truly different only in coloring. We share a near common ancestor. After reading about the people of this system, I wonder if we share a much more distant common ancestor with the Terrans as well.”

“Interesting.” Denii tapped her lip while she flicked the screen through details of the new planet. The planet’s information network was impressive but disturbing with its content. “Despite their primitive technology, they are as much a warring world as our own planets were! Are you sure it is safe?”

Selphan smiled. “The allies I made contact with assure me that they’ve lived successfully on the planet for a number of years. There are two sets, both mated pairs in the most prominent country. Either can help us acclimate to the planet and society.”

“Q’orren?”

“No. Another humanoid species that can subtly alter their appearance to seem Terran."

Denii turned toward Selphan. “Are we close?”

The taller woman punched a few more buttons and it brought up the special overlay to show position of their ship. “We are quite close. We entered the heliopause for their solar system about twenty tics ago.”

“I still have concerns—” Denii was unable to finish her statement as the alarm claxon sounded again. She turned to her mate. “Secure the babies!” Then she raced back to the pilot station. When Selphan joined her in the second chair, Denii gave her mate the bad news. “They are within two jumps, the closest they’ve come so far. I’m bursting us to the far side of the Terran moon to hide our signal, but I fear that we are out of time.”

Selphan looked to her mate with tears in her eyes. “The men of Tal Boraan will never stop pursuing us, we need to let them go.” It was the look on Denii’s face that said clearly she knew who the “them” was her mate referred to. Parents the universe over were conditioned to provide for their children, to love them. But it was only the best sort of parent that would sacrifice everything for their offspring. Selphan continued. “Amari and Zendara are what is most important now.”

A tear fell slowly down Denii’s cheek as her mate’s words hit her fully. “My baby, my child—“

“Will live.”

With hearts and spirits broken, they made their way back to the pod room, and the babies. They each opened a chamber and unclasped a child from the bed. “My baby, my darling, sirra…” Denii whispered the words into the tender place below the dark-haired baby’s ear. Amari smiled and kicked her feet at the reassuring feel and sound of her mother’s voice. At the same time, Selphan whispered words of love and reassurance against the cheek of Zendara Baen-Tor, daughter of their sister planet and heir to their enemy-turned-ally. Both children would be sent into a strange world without knowing the love of their true parents. After a few minutes, they switched so the two queens could say goodbye to the other child. When both infants were secured in the emergency pods once again, Denii turned to her mate and sobbed onto Selphan’s shoulder. Both knowing that they could not grieve for long as the trackers were still out there. The babies themselves cried at being separated.

Denii and Selphan returned to the pilot station and prepared for the future as best they could. As much as they wanted to keep the babies together, there was too much risk of discovery. So messages were beamed to both pairs of contacts on the surface of the strange watery planet, and coordinates were transmitted to each pod’s navigation system. They delayed the launch because it hurt to send the innocent babes into that unknown such as it was. The two queens made one last recording for the babies they were sending off to the surface of Terra. But the delay was short-lived as the claxon sounded again. With final whispered words of love, Selphan pressed the launch button. As the matching life pods disappeared from their view screens, they each breathed a sigh of relief that there was no ion trail for their pursuers to follow. The children of Q’orre would be safe.

The tears fell again as the noise clamored around them, echoing down the halls of the nearly empty ship. Denii’s words were quiet, barely heard through the alarm. “We are the last of our families.”

Selphan responded. “No, they are.”

With the risk of discovery so dire, they both knew there was only one way to guarantee the secrecy of what they’d done. The child heirs of the Reyna and Tora royal sovereigns would be a beacon for any wishing to use them in the power struggle between the two warring planets. The Queens Del Rey would never let them be found for such a purpose. As a secondary alert sounded discordantly against the first, the two women clasped hands. Their grip was strengthened by fear and sorrow. There were two matching buttons on opposite ends of the console, guarded by protective covers. With precise movements, they each flipped the cover out of the way and hovered over the buttons. Dark eyes met one last time and words slipped from Denii’s lips. “Ahna, me sirra.”

They were answered by Selphan. “Me sirra, ahna.” Then hands moved in unison and their main screen lit up with a brilliant flash. The ship was gone. Ahna meant forever.

 


End file.
